Events are not appearing in GTM Preview

If GTM Tag Assistant connects to your site but no GTM Kit events show up in the event timeline, work through this checklist.

Symptoms

  • Tag Assistant shows the GTM container ID and confirms it loaded.
  • The event timeline shows Container Loaded, Page Loaded, Window Loaded, DOM Ready, but no GTM Kit events (page_view, view_item, add_to_cart, etc.).
  • window.dataLayer in DevTools is empty or contains only Google’s default entries.

Cause

GTM Kit is not pushing events. The container itself is loading (otherwise Tag Assistant would not connect), but the data layer enqueue or one of the integrations is broken or disabled.

Solution

1. Confirm the integration toggle is on

Go to GTM Kit, Integrations. The integration for the platform you are testing (WooCommerce, EDD, CF7) must be on. If you toggled it off and forgot, no events will fire.

2. Confirm you are not excluded by user role

If you are signed in as a role listed in Exclude user roles, GTM Kit suppresses tracking for you. Sign out, or use an incognito window, or temporarily remove your role from the exclusion list.

See Exclude logged-in users from tracking.

If GTM Kit’s Consent Mode master toggle is on, all Google tags inside your container check Consent Mode before firing. If your visitor has not granted the relevant categories, tags do not fire even though events do reach the data layer.

Test this distinction:

window.dataLayer.length

If this is greater than zero, GTM Kit is pushing. The “missing” events are actually there; tags just are not firing because of consent state. See Set per-category consent defaults and confirm you are testing with consent granted.

4. Confirm WooCommerce hooks are present (if testing Woo)

Some heavily customized themes and some checkout-replacement plugins bypass woocommerce_loop_* and woocommerce_after_* hooks. GTM Kit relies on those hooks. To isolate:

  1. Switch to a default theme (Twenty Twenty-Four).
  2. Deactivate every plugin except WooCommerce and GTM Kit.
  3. Visit the shop page and check window.dataLayer.

If events fire on the default setup, the cause is in your theme or in another plugin. Reactivate one at a time to find the culprit.

5. Confirm your test environment is not running stale code

In a development setup, especially Local by Flywheel, MAMP, or Herd, OPcache or persistent object caching can serve old PHP. Clear caches:

  • Restart your local PHP service.
  • Run wp cache flush if you have WP-CLI.
  • Empty browser cache.
  • Clear any page cache plugin (WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache, etc.).

Verify the fix

After each step, reload the page in an incognito window and run:

window.dataLayer.filter(e => e.event)

You should see events with names like page_view, view_item, etc.

When to escalate

If none of the above resolves it and you have an active GTM Kit Premium license, file a ticket via the support portal with:

  • The exact GTM Kit version (visible at GTM Kit, General, footer).
  • WordPress version.
  • WooCommerce or EDD version (if relevant).
  • A list of currently active plugins.
  • A copy of window.dataLayer from a problem page.
  • DevTools Console output (any errors).

For free plugin users, file an issue at the WordPress.org support forum: wordpress.org/support/plugin/gtm-kit/.